On Fri, 10 Dec 1993, Ian Macky wrote:
> Thanks to all who responded. Looks like I'm missing an important squishy
> bit that seals the top....
>
> My first car (a Spit) had the charming feature of collecting large amounts
> of water in the plenum, then dumping it en masse onto your clutch foot when
> you took right turns. wunnerful. Compared to that, I'm in high'n'dry
Dear group,
Ian and those who tried to help him seal his top missed an important
point--LBConvertibles are supposed to leak. If the little squishy bit is
added, then the top will not approach the windscreen as closely, and the
top therefore will no longer seal to the side windows, should the car be
one of the effete models with side windows. The top was designed to leak;
all one can do with foam rubber, RTV, and snaps is to adjust *where* it
leaks.
Having completed the top, the designers turned their attention to the
floors. These were made, intentionally, to rust quickly wherever the top
leaked, thus forming rust holes in exactly the right places to let the
water out. If you move the leak points by means of jiggery-pokery, you
will only render the original rust holes non-functional, and force the
floor to develop additional rust holes. By the way, it is a serious
mistake to replace the original floor with a new, continuous, heavily
rustproofed one. This makes the water rise, to a point that may become
genuinely a problem, rather than just a minor nuisance, rather like taking
a shower with the plug in the tub.
In general, water enters your lap (and your passenger's) as the square of
speed if the top is up. Curiously, water enters as the inverse of the
square of speed if the top is down. So, for the non-mathematically
inclined, the faster you go with the top up, the wetter you get. But with
the top down, the faster you go, the dryer you are. (There was a brief
period when some designers in Britain tried to make a completely dry car
by making three position convertible tops so one could drive with only the
portion of the top above the front seat folded back. The theory went that
if you folded back only half the top, you might be dry at every speed.
Unfortunately, when parked, these cars fell victim to the simple fact
that 1 divided by 0 is infinity. But I digress.)
If you must drive with the top up, owing to the inability of your
significant other to appreciate how much drier it would be with the top
down, then it is useful to drive at right angles to the predominant wind
and rain direction--i.e. if the rain is driven from the north, then drive
east or west. If necessity dictates that you make progress N or S, then
tack (going north) or jibe (going south). A few pints helps one perform
the necessary maneuvers, especially on narrow roads.
Just remember, the british way is to endure.
Ray (Additional concours points if your top leaks where the manufacturer
intended) Gibbons, slightly damp in Burlington, VT.
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